Halloween month, aka October, is a great time for scary movies. Catch up on the top 10 in the genre.
1. “The Thing” (1982/2011)
Your dad will tell you to watch the old one, and you will flip him the bird, smoke a left-handed cigarette and watch the new one. Both good.
2. “The Conjuring” (2013)
Imagine the ancestral home of Tom Waits. Now scale it back a bit, and that is what is going on here.
3. “It Follows” (2014)
It skips the blood and guts, it does not jump out from behind corners and it won’t trick clueless coeds into reading from a cursed book. It just follows.
4. “The Haunted Mansion” (2003)
If you are thinking about letting your 8-year-old brother watch “The Conjuring,” put this on instead. It is a lot of fun for everyone, except Eddie Murphy looking back on better days.
5. “Insidious” (2010)
If the 8-year-old brother insists he is old enough to watch big kid movies, throw this on and the little guy will learn his lesson ... and not sleep for a week.
6. “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
At the first screenings of “The Blair Witch Project,” the producers passed out flyers asking folks to come forward to the proper authorities if they had any information on the whereabouts of “missing persons” depicted on screen. The result? A movie made for $22,500 ended up grossing $248 million at the box office.
7. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010)
A scheme to get school children to be nice to janitors.
8. “Psycho” (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock lays out a convincing case that people should put some emotional distance between themselves and their mothers. Make it clear to your mother that the reason you are cutting back on time with her is not personal but strictly for your mental health.
9. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966)
A depraved film that excavates the darkest depths of the human soul.
10. “Shaun of the Dead” (2004)
Tired of always being terrified during October? Simon Pegg once told me it is impossible to be scared when you’re laughing.
